A rat carcass was removed from an area near the kitchen of a restaurant in Dublin’s Liffey Valley shopping centre last month during one of a number of food inspections that led to closure orders. Seven food retailers were served with full or partial closure orders in May, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) reported on Wednesday. The Sheela Palace restaurant in Liffey Valley, Dublin; the Shapla Indian Spice Restaurant in Carlow; the Captain’s Catch takeaway in Limerick and a table in the Fairgreen Shopping Centre in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, were served with full closure notices for breaches of food safety regulations. In addition, closure orders for parts of premises or for food preparation activities were served on three businesses including Mace Supermarket, Harmonstown, Navan, Co Meath; the Hole in the Wall pub in Dublin 7 and Jilly and Joe’s at the Dove Hill Centre in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary. According to the FSAI the closure orders were made by Health Service Executive environmental health officers, after inspections of the premises. With the exception of the table in the Fairgreen Centre, the orders have since been lifted. The closure notice served on the Sheela Palace Restaurant at Liffey Valley was due to “rodent activity in the premises in both the bar areas and in the main kitchen area”. The inspector also reported “a rat carcass was also found and removed from an area near the kitchen”. The inspector noted the disturbance of bait in one of a number of bait boxes beside a mobile salad fridge, along with rodent droppings. The closure order was issued on May 7th and lifted on May 15th. The Shapla Indian Spice restaurant at Hanover Court, Kennedy Avenue, Carlow, was closed because “the standard of cleaning in the premises was insufficient and must be addressed as a matter of urgency,” an inspector said. The order was imposed on May 15th and was lifted on May 22nd. The Captain’s Catch takeaway in Limerick was closed because there was “an absence of a basic cleaning programme as evidenced by the build-up of dirt and debris in the hard-to-reach areas, particularly noted in the rear store”. The order was imposed on May 13th and lifted on May 18th. A table serving food at the Fairgreen Shopping Centre, Mullingar, was closed because several high-risk food products were stored at temperatures above five degrees, as well as there being a lack of hand-washing facilities. That order has not been lifted. A prefab food storage unit externally located at the Mace Supermarket, Harmonstown, Navan, was issued with a closure notice for compliance issues which were “likely to lead to a grave and immediate danger to public health,” an inspector said. The order was imposed on May 27th and lifted on May 28th. The Hole in the Wall pub in Cabra, Dublin, was served with an order closing food storage areas in all first-floor store rooms, as well as prohibiting the preparation and service of food from the ground-floor kitchen. The order was imposed on May 26th and lifted on June 4th.Jilly and Joe’s in the Dove Centre, Carrick-on-Suir, was served with a closure notice relating to the cooling of cooked foods including meat, poultry, gravies/sauces and vegetables such as rice and potato, due to breaches of cooling regulations. The order was imposed on May 7th and lifted on May 28th. Greg Dempsey, FSAI chief executive, said the types of issues identified “in a number of these enforcement orders are concerning and point to clear failures in basic food-safety controls”.“We continue to see lapses in hygiene, cleaning and safe food handling practices, alongside evidence of pest activity in some food premises. These are fundamental requirements that every food business is legally obliged to meet,” Dempsey said.